Best and Most Natural Character(s)

[Jack7]

This thread was kind of forked, I guess you might say, from Bullgrit's thread on http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/249204-highest-level-youve-played.html. He gave me the idea.

Anyways, this thread is about your favorite character types to play, and why? I did a somewhat similar thread called http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/248342-your-real-self-not.html But it dealt more with the player side of character identity. Just in a general sense.

This thread is about what is, or are, your favorite character(s) to play, and why?
And what kinds of characters do you most identify with in-game.

My favorite D&D character has changed over time. I used to like playing Wizards and Thieves. Wizards cause I just liked the idea of magic and of doing things others couldn't. Thieves because they were so good at sneaking about and infiltration. I like sneaking about and I like infiltrating. Occasionally I'd really like playing a Cleric but over time I saw that the religion to character/player aspect in D&D was terribly weak and that made clerics very inflexible, stagnant, stale, and uninteresting to me.

But now I like Rangers. Not specifically linked to any particular edition, I just like Rangers. I tend to make Rangers into lawmen and detectives, similar to my own background in a sense, and I often use them as manhunters, spies, infiltrators, frontier scouts, and trackers. I also use them heavily for reconnaissance and ambush. They are excellent at ambush. And I really like ambushing bad guys. Outfoxing them. I also really like the frontiersman aspect of the Ranger. I've always liked the outdoors and the frontier.

In other games I generally like to play similar types of characters. Detectives, marshals, Intel agents, guys who work alone or independently, guys in the field. The older I get the more I like playing out-front guys, guys doing the infiltrating, sneaking about, scouting, probing, spying, information gathering, mainly independent actors. I guess that's because being older I don't get to do that kind of thing anymore, or at least not nearly as much as I'd like. I tend to gravitate towards other characters like that too, in-game. That is I often find myself teaming up with other rangers, or detectives, or scouts, or whatnot.

Occasionally I think playing a Bard would be really interesting, depending on how the DM let the guy be played and what he was capable of actually doing, but mainly, as far as D&D goes, it's the Ranger.

What's yours?
And why?

 

[Remathilis]

I'm typically a player to very different characters, suave rogues and stalwart clerics.

I love rogues. Some of my favorite PCs have been rogues, or at least roguish. I love being suave, agile, wity, and survive with luck, skill and panache. Typically, I stay to chaotic good alignments and favor elf, half-elf, or halflings. Opposite is clerics, typically off good-aligned gods and are your plate-mail armored lightbringer. Favoring healing and defense. Often lawful or neutral good and typically human or dwarves.

Very different types of PCs. One is all daring and action, one is conviction and cause. Someone much more Fruedian than I could probably come up with an explantation, but in my history of "favorite PCs" most end up in one camp or the other.

 

[fba827]

I tend towards natural-themed characters (bow rangers, spellcasting druids - and in 4th ed, i look forward to trying out the other primal classes) or cleric types (smiting from afar with divine blasts or healing).

In each instance, I am more the ranged attacker... I don't enjoy the upclose fighting much, and I get bored quickly with fighters (both because they are upclose and because I don't see much variety beyond swing/hit/dodge/swing/hit/dodge) .. i like like sparkley magic effects so that I can be a bit more inspiried to be creative with describing my combat actions.

Occasionally I'll dip in to wizardy type if I think of a cool concept, but I like to go with a "theme" (all lightning or cold or transmutations etc).

 

[Halivar]

Fighter/Paladin types. Always with a greatsword. Lawful-Good, verging on Lawful-Stupid. Always brave; first man into danger, last one out. If anyone in the party is going to die in an encounter, I'll be first. Patient, forbearing, just, and ethical, with just a hint of restrained brutality and vengefulness. He always tries resolving conflicts peacefully... once.

Not like me in real life, at all, but most like what I wish I was.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

While I play a vast array lots of the time, some common themes for the kind of character I tend to play showcase a orientation toward Rogues and Rangers, and also in 3.5 Swashbucklers.

-Urban based, almost always the character has grown up/lives in a large urban area. They usually have some manner of expertise in living on the streets, finding out local urban knowledge, etc. Basically in 4e terms, "Streetwise" is ALWAYS! a Trained Skill. (Even characters that be considered in 4e, Primal I have worked into urban settings, think the Pagans from the Thief series).

-Generally they are Martial oriented, with a emphasis on movement and quick reflexes. Stealth can or cannot play a role, sometimes it does, sometimes the character is a very efficient but hardly stealthy dirty fighters.

-Generally I like to be agile, lots of witty comebacks, but can be foul-mouthed, would hardly ever get along with the classic LG Paladin, etc. I tend toward races that orient that feel somewhat so Tieflings, Half-Elves, etc.

On the other account though, there is also a somewhat more magical version too which is basically the same but replaces some of that martial fighting with some tricky magic stuff. So stuff like 4e Warlocks or 3.5 Beguilers.

 

[blargney the second]

I used to play all sorts of characters, slightly favoring the spellcaster end of the spectrum. Eventually I grew to dislike the resource management of daily abilities and moved into melee warriors, and I've been happily smacking things in the head ever since.
-blarg

 

[Jack7]

FS, have you ever read God's Demon? I swear that avatar of yours looks just like his work.

Fighter/Paladin types. Always with a greatsword. Lawful-Good, verging on Lawful-Stupid. Always brave; first man into danger, last one out. If anyone in the party is going to die in an encounter, I'll be first.

That sounds like an old buddy a'mine. All he ever used to play was the Paladin. He just got back from his last tour in Iraq about Christmas and we were yakking about gaming one night. I told him how I now like to play Rangers and he told me he had given up Paladins. Said he didn't like to be out front anymore. Said he'd rather be a Bard. Hang in the back and watch the kids butt heads. Step in when needed, but not before. That conversation was kinda why I mentioned changing over time. I guess time and maybe personal experiences change everything, even stuff like character preferences, and how we like to operate.

 

[Storminator]

Clerics. Always come back to clerics.

When a DM makes a world, gods are one of the first things he makes. Clerics get into the world and make it tick like no other class. And there's a fair variety of abilities that comes with the package, no matter what your edition (and if you go 3.x you rule!).

And I always have a shtick, something easy to do. It has to be a phrase, a hand gesture, a facial expression, a repeated action... something active I can do at the table, so you can tell I'm RPing. Motivations, phobias and ideals are great, but you can't showcase them at the table session after session after session.

PS

 

[Aus_Snow]

I scored, uh, really low in Specialist, when I took the Laws quiz, so I guess it's no surprise that I've played just about everything, and will continue to do so, most likely.

However, I have a bit of a soft spot for 'Paladin'-types. Don't know why, and it's not like I've actually played more of them, or played them more convincingly, AFAIK, but yeah. Even so.

 

[Wik]

I'm a lot like my brother when it comes to characters. I like playing a character with a major fault, and running around that.

Either I'll play against type (my favourite character of all time was a 2nd edition halfling fighter), or I'll play a good character with a pretty big character flaw. For example, one of my favourite "recent" characters was a Wu Jen who had some taboos that were always fun (he couldn't leave a building the same way he entered it, and he couldn't sleep during storms), and another character I enjoyed was a human spellthief who was both impulsive and brave. Yikes.

In terms of character classes, I'm pretty open. I'll play whatever the group needs, because I'm definitely a team player. But my characters are usually at least a little roguish, and often lean towards the "good guy" side of things. Lawful Good is one of my favourite alignments.

I like playing tough characters - I'm more "Die Hard" than "Rambo". I also like giving my characters mechanical themes, rather than becoming a "generalist". My 3e wizards can be defensive mages, terrain controllers, charmers, or summoners. My clerics could focus on attack spells, or my druids could be entirely spell-based.

I hate psionics. I never play 'em. Even in DARK SUN.